All you wanted to know about the Koch Bros and 7/15 open thread

Morning all. This is for those who don’t know the back ground of the Koch Bros. They are also the founders of Americans for (the 1%s) prosperity and now count the State of Wisconsin as one of their subsidiaries since they bought the elections of the WI supreme court and of course installed Walker as their puppet CEO in WI. They also support the Club for (The 1%s) Growth in Wi as well.
1. The family’s $100 billion fortune comes mostly from a massive network of oil and gas pipelines, and investments in other polluting industries like paper and plastics. The brothers inherited the seed money for their holdings from their father Fred Koch, who made his first fortune building oil pipelines for the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Back in the states, Fred Koch supported racial segregation and white supremacist groups like the John Birch Society.

2. Koch Industries is the second largest privately held company in America, worth upwards of $80 billion. It is one of the country’s top 15 polluters, responsible for more than 300 oil spills. It has paid over $100 million in fines and been found guilty by a federal jury of stealing oil from Native American lands.

3. The Koch’s have invested multi-millions in more than 85 right-wing organizations over the years to push an anti-government, libertarian agenda. Many local Tea Party chapters were fronts for Americans for Prosperity, one of their groups. Another big recipient, ALEC, or the American Legislative Exchange Council, drafts bills and talking points that Republican officials cite again and again. In the 2012 presidential election cycle, the Koch’s right-wing donor network spent $400 million on electioneering.

4. The brothers work to create legal decisions to empower their efforts. They brought two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, to give speeches at their invitation-only gatherings for libertarian industrialists. That was before the Court issued itsCitizens United ruling, gutting federal laws that restricted the kinds of outside campaigns they bankroll. They funded groups that filed thousands of pages of legal briefs to attack those election laws. After the Court threw out federal campaign restrictions in 2010—a ruling they help to write—the Koch’s began to spend unprecedented sums to sway elections.

5. Americans for Prosperity led a successful takeover of the school board in Wake County, North Carolina in 2009, which then ended student busing to resegregate high schools. They resurrected the coded rhetoric of the old South, using terms like “forced busing” and “neighborhood schools.” After hundreds of students were sent to other schools, the uproar was so great the AFP slate was voted out two years later, but not before the kids experienced racism and prejudice.

6. As donors to higher education, the Koch’s have designed grant agreements with more than 150 colleges and universities where they restrict academic freedom by exerting control over who gets hired. The programs they fund present only their views in class, curricula and in their research. They promote pro-business, libertarian inquiry, which does not allow the facts and results to lead to their own conclusions. Faculties at many universities have protested these donations and threats to academic freedom.

7. AFP was one of the lead groups in Wisconsin, encouraging Republican Gov. Scott Walker to revoke collective bargaining agreements with public employees—except for police and firefighters, who tend to support the GOP and law-and-order politicians. Through national legal advocacy groups like ALEC, they have introduced scores of reactionary anti-union bills in dozens of states.

8. Other Koch-funded efforts include the Republican national effort to unduly police the voting process to discourage young people, minorities and senior from casting ballots. The reactionary voting rights bills they have introduced in dozens of states impose stricter voter ID requirements, which do not prevent people from registering to vote but will keep them from getting a ballot if they cannot present specific paperwork. AFP and other Koch-funded groups, such as True The Vote, have recruited and trained mostly white poll watchers to challenge the credentials of mostly non-white voters, creating a climate of fear and intimidation around voting.

9. The Koch brothers make $13 million a day from their investments, but they want to eliminate minimum wage laws and oppose any increases. People earning the federal minimum wage earn about $60 a day. A minimum wage worker would have to work almost 700 years to earn what the Kochs make in a day. (Koch-funded politicians have proposed 67 bills in 25 states to reduce the minimum wage.)

10. The Koch brothers want to destroy the most popular government program of all, Social Security, by funding right-wing think tanks that spread misinformation about Social Security’s long-term financial health, claiming it will not survive. They want people to invest their retirement savings on Wall Street, which is riskier and would earn billions in fees for investment firms. They want to raise the retirement age for Social Security to 70, which would especially penalize blue-collar workers who do manual labor, as their bodies wear out more quickly than white-collar workers.

11. The Koch brothers’ massive investments and holdings are literally killing the planet, because their primary business is transporting gas and oil. That includes the Canadian oil tar sands, which is the dirtiest source of fossil fuel on earth. If these sands are developed for the U.S. or Chinese markets, it would be the biggest carbon bomb in decades, hastening the progress of global climate change.

The 1980 Koch platform when he ran for President
What else do the Koch brothers want?
In 1980, David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980.
Let’s take a look at the 1980 Libertarian Party platform.
Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:

•“We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”
•“We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
•“We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”
•“We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”
•“We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”
•“We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”
•“We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”
•“We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.”
•“As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.”
•“We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.”
•“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”
•“We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”
•“We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.”
•“We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
•“We support abolition of the Department of Energy.”
•“We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.”
•“We demand the return of America’s railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.”
•“We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called “self-protection” equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.”
•“We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.”
•“We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.”
•“We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.”
•“We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.”
•“We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.”
•“We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”
•“We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”

And of course a cartoon today — Since Trump want to privatize the Air Traffic Controllers

T and R Jar (I remembered 🙂 ) And thanks to all that take the time to post or comment as its appreciated as their is so much info out their is good to have it in one “Go To” place. Have a good weekend all and keep up the good fight!!!

Having trouble with the up vote feature today it doesn’t want to register it, the motion bar up in the right just moves but no vote. Must be time for a reboot later today. Any way just want you all to know I’m with ya on the comments in spirit

So strange that Chelsea would even respond to such a ridiculous assertion. Methinks she may be enjoying the limelight.

As for her other two sentences – gag! Also, it sounds like she may be more like her mother than I thought with all the ‘I’ stuff.

I really hope Chelsea decides to focus on motherhood and her personal projects and leaves politics for those who know what facing real challenges is like. Other than the challenge I’m sure it was at the time when her father embarrassed the family by not being able to keep it in his pants, she really hasn’t had to suffer much from what I can tell. She learns of others struggles in books.

I’ve never been a member of the union but know people who are in unions now, so I know they’re not perfect. Lots of corruption there too with union management preferring the status quo most of the time. (RosaAnn DeMoro being a huge exception)

In my career I’ve been on both sides of the union/ management as a member and management. Not on a the negotiation team though. My experience was this, It was a kicking and dragging contest to get a fair compromise from both sides (similar to reps-dems in congress) One of the unions I was in was just bad- defending employees to the max that should have been fired for constantly being late or just sick leave abuse. It finally lead to their down fall as the union was busted. Management then took revenge and fired some good people the were trying to work in good faith with management but were in the union. Me I just moved on to another company when the opportunity came as my “reward” was a 30% pay cut to stay with that employer. If unions are to come back in this country both management and unions need to use the German model where unions have a seat on the corporate board it seems to working out for them. But with the corporate mindset in the US this is wishful thinking at this point.

Bob Poe has been a major Democratic donor from Florida who was once chairman of the Florida Democratic Party and got a taste of what the DCCC is all about when he ran for Congress last cycle and was successfully opposed by a Pelosi New Dem pick, Val Demings, who predictably, has turned out to be one of the worst Democratic freshmen in Congress. It was hard to get Poe to tell his story but he did share a few words he thought would be helpful for DWT readers to understand. “From the day Democrats became the minority in the House of Representatives in 2010 until today, I have received literally thousands of emails from the DCCC asking, begging and pleading for contributions to defeat Republicans and regain the majority. Countless donors large and small have donated millions in pursuit of that noble effort. But, what most donors don’t know is the dirty little secret that the DCCC spends a significant amount of of their scarce resources not defeating Republicans but in defeating Democrats. Each cycle, the DCCC involves itself in Democratic primaries– even in races that are safely Democratic regardless of who wins the primary. This practice is dishonest and it needs to stop.“

The DNC,the DCCC, the DSCC and the Democratic Governors Association all have their fingers on the scale. It is not for the benefit of the 99%. The Clinton wing of the party have their tentacles wrapped around the party’s neck and aren’t about to let go.

WI is another example. You would think they would learn here, Bernie kicked Hillary’s ass here and the corporate Dems didn’t learn a thing. Its same olé Shit with the same result coming in 2018 if these ass hat Dems here don’t start paying attention. Their is a reason that 300,000 Wisconsinites sat home in 2016 compared to turnout in 2012. Were sick of not being heard by the Wi-DNC. Bernie listened!!!!

Apparently Counterpunch is down on Caitlin. She’s actually pretty nice about it and continues to urge us to join forces with some on the right when we’re all fighting for the same thing. I couldn’t agree more. I was happily astounded when I heard complimentary opinions about Bernie from Trump voters who might have voted Bernie. And Medicare for All is finding significant support in poor, rural areas that are crying out for health care.

There’s a nice Batman and Robin gif, too. :O)

While gathering tweets for this piece just now I noticed that the viral hashtag #CNNDirt is currently trending on Twitter as thousands of people people dig through the social media accounts of CNN personnel and expose the awful things they’ve said and done over the years. A little research shows that it’s primarily Trump-supporting accounts using this hashtag, and that it was made viral by right-wingers Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich.

Am I still going to tag this article #CNNDirt when I post it, even though it’s being used by Trumpsters? You bet your sweet commie ass I am, snowflake! I might even tag Posobiec and Cernovich too if I’m feeling especially naughty. I know I’ve got a helpful idea to share here about the people’s revolution against propaganda outlets like CNN, and I’m going to ride that wave all the way through to help advance it. Will this mean that I’ve pulled a Fairbanks and switched teams? Of course not! It just means I’m doing what you should be learning to do: freely surfing the zeitgeist of the new media without shame.

In practice, riding the constantly-fluctuating spirit of the times in each moment feels kind of like what I imagine Tarzan experiencing as he swings from vine to vine across the jungle canopy, before swooping me up in his big, powerful arms and carrying me off to his secret jungle hideaway— sorry, I’m drifting. Where was I?
Vines. Tarzan doesn’t care what tree the vine’s hanging from, he only cares if it will take him where he wants to go and if it’s strong enough to carry the weight of his sexy muscular body. In the same way, when surfing the zeitgeist of the new media you’ve got to be awake to what’s hot in each moment and be ready to jump on it and ride its energy on its terms. If the energy is coming primarily from the left, like it was the other day when I wrote about net neutrality, you take that vine and you ride it with all the appropriate anti-establishment ideas you can. If the energy is coming primarily from the right, like it was last week when I wrote about CNN’s downfall, you do the same. If you’re closing yourself off to one direction, not only are you killing your ability to move across the jungle canopy by halving your options, you’re also halving the energy with which the ideas you share will be carried.

In both the articles I just mentioned, I wrote about pretty much the same thing I always write about: how unelected elites are controlling America and are steering our species off a cliff. But they were carried by energy coming from two different directions. If I’d closed myself off to the right last week I would have had to write about some low-energy subject that day that nobody really cared about (which I still accidentally do sometimes because I’m still figuring this thing out myself), or write nothing at all. Instead I just grabbed vines and rode the energy of the moment, and both pieces ended up getting a decent amount of reads.

Yes, Caitlin ignited a firestorm with her writing about working with some on the right who intersect with our shared goals.

My Republican boss asked me (again) about single payer, he finds it all confusing.

When I told him how it would cut costs and provide a better quality of life due to not having to worry about something going wrong in one’s life health-wise (because you should be able to address health concerns without draining your savings) he said, “Well, okay, sounds good! Talk to me some more!”.

His health plan is far from ideal and he’d already had to exhaust his health savings plan this year but his doctor wants him to undergo a colonoscopy, and he is balking due to the cost and his inability to get a straight answer on how much it’ll cost him.

Hi Birdies, been in the Big Apple. Tonight I am at. Brooklyn Cyclones minor league game. I really like the venue as it is on Coney Island, and the ocean breeze is very refreshing after sweltering temps this week.

Thursday I was walking on the High Line, the best way to see the West Side of Manhattan. I happened to see a sign in the window. See below.

Tonight is Sat Nite Fever night @ MSU park. One of the songs played was “Disco Inferno”. You may remember that Bernie came out dancing on the Ellen show in 2015 as the refrain was “Burn Baby Burn” and I exclaimed “Feel the Bern! Bernie Sanders!” Know what? No one looked at me funny!

But there is Millennium Pipeline, which Pramilla knows a great deal more about, who owns this. It is actually owned by three large corporations: Mitsubishi, GE and Credit Suisse. Now, what would those three large multinationals be interested in this plant, medium-sized plant, although devastating? What they’re basically interested, it is the precursor of 300 similar plants. If this plant is built and gets online, there is no justification for not building more of these plants. We believe this one needs to be stopped, if you want to stop the entire the buildout of the hydrofracking infrastructure and its effect on our environment.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, appearing fully recovered from dehydration suffered while helping to build a home for charity in Canada, was released from an overnight hospital stay on Friday and addressed the project’s closing ceremony.

Carter, 92, collapsed while working on Thursday at the Winnipeg construction site for Habitat for Humanity, which promotes affordable home ownership, and was taken to St. Boniface General Hospital for medical treatment and tests.

By Friday morning, Carter was smiling as he returned to the building site to help kick off the project’s last day.